About Mark Hollingsworth

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So far Mark Hollingsworth has created 24 blog entries.
12 09, 2022

Seacox Heath castle retreat ‘used by Russian spies’ may be seized

2023-05-22T22:35:51+00:00By |Categories: Russia, Russia and Putin, Russian Oligarchs|

In the countryside around Tunbridge Wells, on the border between Kent and East Sussex, is a castle that few passersby would know is owned by Russia. Seacox Heath, a grade II listed 19th-century castle, is rumoured to be used by Russian diplomats and FSB spies as a weekend and holiday retreat. It is one of 18 properties in England owned by the Russian state that a Timesinvestigation has found could be seized and given to Ukraine.

12 09, 2022

How Prince Charles’s €1m bagman infiltrated the British establishment

2023-05-22T22:35:56+00:00By |Categories: Qatar, Royal Family, UK|

The Queen rarely – if ever – accepts invitations to dinner at private houses, no matter how grand. But in the summer of 2014 the oil and gas rich Gulf state of Qatar became the first ‘official partner’ of Royal Ascot and secured branding rights for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II stakes. The Qataris also agreed to pay for the upkeep of the Castle of Mey which is owned by the royal family.

12 09, 2022

How Russia’s oligarchs are evading sanctions

2023-05-22T22:36:01+00:00By |Categories: Russia, Russia and Putin, Russian Oligarchs|

On 25 February 2022, the day after Russia invaded Ukraine, a select group of oligarchs attended a private meeting with President Putin in the Kremlin’s St. Catherine’s Hall. It was ostensibly to discuss how the government would assist state-owned Russian banks who were about to be sanctioned by the USA, notably Sberbank and VTB Group. The deputy prime minister Andrey Belousov asked the oligarchs and corporate titans to keep working with sanctioned banks. He said that confidence in the banks was crucial for a country where historically financial chaos has destroyed savings and people’s livelihoods.

16 03, 2022

Why did it take so long to sanction Roman Abramovich?

2023-05-22T22:36:06+00:00By |Categories: Russia, Russia and Putin, Russian Oligarchs|

On 28 October 2016, I received an email from a well-connected former senior MI6 officer who asked me if I had any material about properties in London owned by wealthy Russians. I was a natural person to ask because I had written a book about the Russian oligarchs and had become an expert on the ownership of expensive houses and luxury apartments in central London.

28 08, 2021

The email that lays bare a very cosy deal: Man with the golden address book who demanded a £5,000 cut for setting up Prince Charles meeting

2023-05-22T22:35:33+00:00By |Categories: Royal Family, UK|

A major ethics investigation was last night launched into an extraordinary ‘cash for access’ scheme involving Prince Charles, which has been uncovered by The Mail on Sunday. A bombshell email reveals in excruciating detail how wealthy donors could pay £100,000 to secure a lavish dinner with the Prince of Wales and an overnight stay at Dumfries House, his country mansion in Scotland. The payments were intended for Charles’s charity ventures, but the email details how fixers would pocket up to 25 per cent of the fees.

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